Obese People Should Get Counseling, Panel Advises

Earlier this week, a federal health advisory panel recommended that obese adults receive intensive counseling in order to address the mounting obesity epidemic in America. The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force encouraged doctors to identify and aid obese patients by providing counseling, or referring them to a weight loss-oriented program.

Specially targeted: patients with a body mass index of 30 or more — which is currently one in three Americans.

Under the current health care law, medicare and most other insurers would be required to cover the cost of any recommended weight loss services. Under current guidelines, many health insurance companies aren’t required — and don’t cover — weight loss counseling. And according to a recent study, more than half of obese patients had never been told they were obese by their doctors. The Preventative Services Task Force, though, found that obese patients found the most success with “intensive, multicomponent behavioral interventions,” involving at least a dozen counseling sessions.

“These types of programs really focus on changing your lifestyle,” said task force member David Grossman. “Some commercial and non-profit weight-management programs offer many of these features.”

But the panel’s recommendations — and their impact — may be short-lived, depending on the Supreme Court’s ruling on the constitutionality of the current health care law. The ruling is expected to come down on Thursday.

Comments

Simply Irresistible

Over the years, we've poked fun at a lot of "based on a true story" movies that turned out to be bullshit. But then we thought that maybe we should stop giving Hollywood shit for embellishing history a bit if it lets them tell a slightly better story. So instead, we decided to give Hollywood…

As you slog your way through the myriad not-yet-April Fools' Day pranks that plague this nation, revel in this: no one has ever pranked someone better than Michael Jackson pranked Russell Crowe, and he did it for years. In an interview with The Guardian, Crowe revealed that despite having never met Jackson,…